The chairman of an influential Senate committee on Thursday voiced strong opposition to user fees proposed by the Trump administration to supplement funding for the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission, casting doubt on $31.5 million the agency is seeking above its 2018 funding level.

Risk analytics company PlanetRisk has secured an up to $79 million contract to provide program management support over the next five years for a U.S. Department of Homeland Security office tasked with ensuring the cybersecurity of the federal government, the company said Thursday.

In this monthly series, legal recruiting experts Amanda Brady and Amy Mallow of Major Lindsey & Africa interview law firm management from Am Law 200 firms about how they are navigating an increasingly competitive business environment. The second conversation is with Allison Friend, chief human resources officer for Hogan Lovells LLP.

A Seventh Circuit panel on Wednesday sharply questioned the ripeness of an appeal claiming that an award of attorneys’ fees in a $56 million-plus settlement of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action was potentially $3 million too high, and demanded supplemental briefing.

New York's financial regulator has been relatively quiet since first-of-their-kind cybersecurity rules took effect last year, but attorneys expect that the first wave of compliance certifications due Thursday and looming deadlines to implement more technically complex aspects of the regulation will trigger an enforcement blitz.

The House of Representatives passed a package of bills Wednesday altering CFPB mortgage disclosure rules, SEC oversight rules and companies’ disclosure requirements, with backers saying the legislation would help encourage growth in the markets.

A group of consumers suing telecom giant AT&T for robocalls the company allegedly made was denied class certification Wednesday after AT&T told the court late last year that it denies the bulk of the allegations made in the lawsuit.

The four nominees seeking to fill posts on the Federal Trade Commission appeared in front of a Senate committee on Wednesday, answering questions from lawmakers about the power of big technology companies and consumer protection issues surrounding data breaches and privacy.

A New Jersey federal judge on Wednesday sentenced two Russian nationals to federal prison terms for their roles in a $300 million worldwide cyberattack that targeted more than a dozen major corporate networks, including those of NASDAQ and Dow Jones & Co., and compromised more than 160 million credit card numbers.

Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler derided the absence of his former agency in efforts to enhance U.S. cybersecurity infrastructure during a Wednesday panel at the Brookings Institution, stressing the need for active enforcement and more "agile regulation," particularly as the rollout of 5G nears.

President Donald Trump has nominated the head of the U.S. Army’s electronic warfare unit to lead the National Security Agency, as well as the U.S. Cyber Command, according to a Tuesday tweet by the White House’s cybersecurity coordinator.

A court-appointed receiver for an insolvent Illinois company that left sensitive medical data in an unlocked dumpster agreed Wednesday to pay $100,000 to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for breaching federal privacy laws.

The U.S. General Services Administration has awarded slots on its massive Alliant information technology services contract to 81 small businesses, allowing them to compete for up to $15 billion in orders over a decade, it announced Wednesday.

A former top attorney at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Seattle branch has been charged with stealing the identity of seven immigrants and attempting to use that information to defraud several major financial institutions, according to Washington federal court documents.

Consumers suing Yahoo over unsolicited “welcome texts” suffered a stinging setback on Tuesday, after an Illinois federal court decertified their class in light of new information that indicates roughly a quarter of recipients may have consented to the welcome texts after all.

Moscow-based antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab has launched a new salvo in its legal battle with the White House, this time claiming in D.C. federal court that U.S. Department of Defense legislation banning its products from government systems unconstitutionally singles it out.

A former Canadian Pacific Railway IT employee was sentenced by a Minnesota federal judge Tuesday to one year and one day in prison for intentionally damaging critical components of the transcontinental railroad company’s computer network, following a guilty verdict in October.

The lead plaintiff in a proposed class action accusing timeshare company Marriott Vacation Club of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by making unsolicited robocalls to her cellphone dropped her $5 million lawsuit against the company Tuesday in California federal court.

Finjan Inc. announced Monday it had vacated a California federal patent infringement retrial set to start that day against a Symantec Corp. unit, saying it reached confidential settlement terms with its cybersecurity rival and expects by the month’s end to finalize a “definitive agreement.”

Expert Analysis

Multidistrict litigation is an ever-expanding driver of product liability litigation, but when the MDL process runs its course there is often still a trial to be had, and there are strategic and practical decisions to consider once a case has been remanded. Brandon Cox and Charissa Walker of Tucker Ellis LLP offer tips on how to navigate the remand process.

As litigation funding becomes more widespread, greater complexity and variability in funding deals are to be expected. All claimants should consider certain key questions on the economics of single-case funding when considering or comparing funding terms, says Julia Gewolb of Bentham IMF.

Given the operational and security risks involved, and the substantial digital asset values transacted, the rise of distributed ledger technology and smart contracts will create new opportunities and responsibilities for transactional lawyers, say attorneys with Potter Anderson Corroon LLP.

If an Ohio federal court's recent ruling in Lindenbaum v. CVS Health is followed by other courts, the long-term effect of the decision has the potential to classify many, if not almost all, health care-related calls subject to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s emergency exemption and, thus, outside of liability, say attorneys with Troutman Sanders LLP.

Law firms claim they create client teams to improve service. Clients aren’t fooled, describing these initiatives as “thinly veiled sales campaigns.” Until firms and client teams begin to apply a number of principles consistently, they will continue to fail and further erode clients’ trust, says legal industry coach Mike O’Horo.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's annual regulatory and examination priorities letter is a road map to areas on which FINRA will focus in the coming year. Firms must use this information to assess strengths, identify gaps and shore up weaknesses, says Emily Gordy, a partner at McGuireWoods LLP and a former senior vice president at FINRA.

While a client’s visual impairment can create challenges for an attorney, it also can open up an opportunity for both attorney and client to learn from each other. By taking steps to better assist clients who are blind or visually impaired, attorneys can become more perceptive and effective advisers overall, say Julia Satti Cosentino and Nicholas Stabile of Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP.

Because courts have not modernized as quickly as companies like Amazon, Tesla and Apple, Americans are becoming increasingly dissatisfied, but technological innovations may be able to help Americans access their due process, says Stephen Kane of FairClaims.

In a national survey of 378 small law firms, partners ranked client referrals as the most important means of business development. Yet studies reveal that while professional services providers obtain most new clients from existing client referrals, their best new clients — the ones providing the largest pool of investable assets — overwhelmingly come from “centers of influence,” says Frank Carone, an executive partner at Abrams Fensterman.

Chairman Jay Clayton of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently gave an extraordinary speech reiterating his concerns about initial coin offerings while also adding a new twist. It's gatekeeper liability redux at the SEC, and lawyers connected to ICOs should be watching their backs, says John Reed Stark, president of John Reed Stark Consulting LLC.